Funny to think: No one complains when they wake up in the morning and realize they have to go to the bathroom. No one thinks, "I'll let my mother or father or wife or children or brother or friend do it for me ... they're ever so much better at it." Everyone knows that going to the bathroom is something no one else can do for them.

But when it comes to spiritual endeavor, there may be a lot of caterwauling ... creating gods and goddesses, teachers and gurus, temples and holy places, wise texts and wonderful clothes. Heart-felt prayers ascend to the heavens. It is very touching and very human and still ....

Who could possibly go to the bathroom for you in the morning?

Just spitballing.

Last edited by genkaku on Fri Feb 06, 2009 10:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

All the necessities of Buddhism are internal to ourselves - namely the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path.

You do need some external... I mean, otherwise you wouldn't have the bathroom... but only the amount necessary to do what needs to be done. You don't need 84000 bathrooms, even if you've got teenage daughters.

Besides the fact that some help one become spiritually inspired (ie faith), I completely agree. Especially when it comes to the material gain that appears to be growing in religion. I find no need for amulets, prayer cloths, etc. Sanghas and Sadhus must be highly respected for giving up what most people always grasp for.

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725